the film forum library tutorial contact

Snake River Dam Removal Still a Bad Idea by Andre Stepankowsky The Daily News, June 15, 2022

Perhaps these dams shouldn't have been built half a century ago,
but that's no reason to tear them down today.

Later this summer, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and United States Sen. Patty Murray will weigh in on a question that has vexed the Northwest for more than a quarter century.

Should the four lower Snake River hydroelectric dams be breached to help restore endangered and threatened salmon runs?

Here's hoping common sense prevails and the two leaders steer away from that radical and massively expensive idea.

Much is at stake: The four dams generate enough power to supply about 900,000 homes. Their ship locks make it possible to ship grain, wood and other commodities between lower Columbia River ports and the Rocky Mountain region. They are pivotal to operation of the Northwest power electrical grid.

On the other side is the preservation of rugged and once-abundant salmon species that swim 700 miles or more twice in their lifetimes, helped feed generations of native peoples and are an essential part of the river economy and ecosystem.

Federal fisheries managers and hydro system operators repeatedly have rejected the dam breaching idea, and they've been challenged by conservation groups who say hydropower operations jeopardize the fish in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

It's not an easy decision. Few issues are as complex as salmon, especially when their needs collide with the operations of the Northwest hydropower system. Assertions are followed by counter assertions and counter-counter assertions that can leave one bewildered and frustrated.

I've followed this issue for decades, and while my appreciation of the dam-removal argument is more sympathetic, I still oppose the idea. Here's why:

One: The price tag. Removing the dams would cost $1.3 billion to $2.6 billion, and then there are billions of more dollars needed to replace the power they generate.

A report commissioned by the governor and Murray, released last week, estimated that replacing the power, irrigation and transportation capacity the dams now provide would cost $10.3 billion to $27.2 billion.

The money would be better spent on habitat restoration projects, such as the recently completed $32 million project at Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge east of Washougal, Washington. That 1,000-acre project -- the largest wetland restoration effort completed on the lower Columbia -- planted a half million trees and shrubs and reconnected a creek to the Columbia River. It now provides critical rearing and shelter habitat for juvenile salmon and also benefits many other bird, fish and mammal species.

Imagine how many more of these habitat projects could be funded instead of ripping down the dams.

I doubt a significant number of Northwest electric ratepayers -- who paid for the dams and also would shoulder the cost removing them -- support breaching the structures.

Snake and Columbia rivers' salmon runs improved steadily between 1980 and about 2015, boosted by these passage improvements, tribal hatchery programs and favorable ocean conditions. For example, the 10-year-average return of Chinook at Lower Granite Dam (the uppermost of the four Lower Snake River dams) in 2010 was 83,000, up from 35,000 in 1980). Chinook returns to the Columbia system in 2015 were 1.3 million, a record for a third year in a row.

Runs have collapsed since then as ocean conditions declined.

Nevertheless, history shows the salmon can rebound if other factors -- especially climate and ocean conditions -- cooperate.

Yet there's room for skepticism: Even if the dams are removed, the Snake River runs still need to pass through the four lower Columbia dams. The upper Snake River would continue to be blocked off to salmon by the Hells Canyon dams, and the two historically prodigious Snake Basin fish producers -- the Salmon and Clearwater rivers -- already are accessible through fish ladders on the lower dams -- even if some fish advocates' rhetoric subtly implies they are not.

It's true the four Snake dams account for only about 7% percent of the hydropower generated in the Columbia Basin, but every watt will be needed. Northwest energy demand -- flat for two decades -- will zoom as people adopt electric vehicles. The average electric car, for example, uses as much energy as an average home.

Solar and wind are not as reliable as hydropower, even though battery storage technology is advancing and the cost of those sources is declining.

Even if we dismantle a small part of the hydropower system, Columbia Basin salmon runs never will approach their historical highs of 10 million to 20 million returning adults. So what constitutes adequate recovery -- mere survival and perpetuity, or enough abundance to sustain abundant tribal and commercial fisheries?

The choice is made even more difficult because some judgments can't be made with complete scientific certainty, and some factors are beyond human control.

In truth, it's a humbling issue to contemplate. To be sure, perhaps these dams shouldn't have been built half a century ago, but that's no reason to tear them down today.